Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni held talks here Saturday with UN experts investigating the exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an official statement said.
Uganda backs rebels who have been fighting the government of DRC President Laurent Kabila for two years now. Rwanda backs a separate rebel faction, while troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia fight alongside Kabila's troops.
A UN team has been sent to the region to investigate allegations the countries involved in the war are there to exploit the country's vast mineral wealth.
Twenty years ago, the DRC was the world's leading exporter of cobalt and the second exporter of industrial diamonds. It is also rich in copper, zinc, manganese, tin and gold.
A statement from the Ugandan State House said that Museveni told the UN team Uganda was in the DRC for reasons of security and was not "in any way involved in the exploitation of that country's natural resources."
Museveni pointed out that "exploitation of minerals is a business that necessitates huge investment funds, which Uganda does not have," the statement added.
"If the Ugandan government has such resources, the first thing would be to exploit the minerals which are lying idle in Uganda, rather than go to exploit the ones in DRC," Museveni was quoted as saying.
The UN team traveled to Uganda a week after supporters of the first vice president of the Ugandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement (RCD-ML), Mbusa Nyamwisa, staged a coup against their president Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba in Bunia.
Although Ugandan troops suppressed the uprising, supporters of Wamba dia Wamba have since alleged that their rivals are backed by a group of Ugandan army officers, headed by Chief of Staff Brigadier James Kazini, who is after "personal gain."
RCD-ML nominally controls territory in eastern DRC bordering Uganda, but the area, which is rich in coffee, timber and minerals, is in fact controlled by Ugandan troops.
The State House meeting was also attended by Kazini, Ugandan Army Commander Major-General Jeje Odongo and Deputy Army Commander Brigadier Joram Mugume -- KAMPALA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
